The final margin aside, Mount Carmel seemed in control during much of its 54-51 victory over St. Laurence in their Class 3A regional final at Glenbard South on March 7.
There were seven ties and eight lead changes, but the Caravan ran the court with plenty of assurance when it mattered.
Yet it could have gone the other way so easily with a shot missed here or made there. That, at least, is salve for the mental wound the Vikings suffered as their most successful season in nearly two generations ended.
The last switch of the lead, on a basket by the Caravan’s Keith Jenkins 90 seconds into the fourth quarter, began one more Mount Carmel run in a game speckled with them.
With the Caravan’s guard trio of Noah Mister, Grant Best and Cameron Thomas attacking inside and out, and defending with brio, Mount Carmel (29-5) erased a 10-point first-quarter deficit by halftime, held steady with the Vikings in the third quarter, and outscored them 15-12 in the final quarter. It was a far cry from Laurence’s 75-65 win at Mount Carmel five weeks prior. The difference?
“Our chemistry, definitely,” Best said. “We all believe in each other. We try to make it easy for the other person. If someone’s hot, give them the ball.”
Best scored 16 points, Mister and Thomas 15 each, the latest repetition of their uncanny ability to score in similar bunches almost every game. It makes them a real chore to guard.
“Even me passing to (Claude) Mpouma and him shooting free throws,” Best said. “I’ve got trust in him that he’ll knock at least one of them down.”
Mpouma, a 6-foot-8 junior who’s an elite football prospect, did just that twice in the fourth quarter. The first broke the 39-all deadlock after 24 minutes, and the second moved the Caravan ahead 53-51 with 27.6 seconds remaining. They were his only two points of the game, and most welcome.
“They got some timely offensive rebounds down the stretch,” Vikings coach Roshawn Russell said. “They went from zone to man, and we prefer to play against man. They did a good job.”
That was shown in the numerous steals Mister, Best and Thomas combined for. More often than not they were converted into points, especially during a 15-0 run across 4:55 mid-game.
“We pride ourselves on pressure defense,” Caravan coach Phil Segroves said. “We thought there were a couple guys we’d be able to pressure, and we were lucky enough to get some turnovers at the end of the first and start of the second quarter. The 15-0 run was a big turning point for our guys to say, ‘We’ve got this.’ ”
“We’ve been here before,” Mister said. “We’ve got experience. We don’t panic under pressure. Even when we went down 10, when they made their little runs, we played our game and came back.”
EJ Mosley led St. Laurence with 16 points and eight rebounds.
For the Vikings, finishing 29-6 equaled the best victory mark in school history, achieved with Kevin Boyle and Jim Stack on the court in 1976-77.
“We’re going to be a respected, competitive program from here on out, and credit to those (five) seniors for that,” Russell said.